Tomb Raiding: My Family's Last Clan Chief is Little Brother

Chapter 354 Black Fly Parasite
It's a fact that Huo Xiaoyao is dead. This person was just a pawn, and there's no point in trying to get anything out of her.

Huo Xiangu took a sip of tea and said calmly, "This girl has quite a fiery temper."

The Wang family's brainwashing skills are truly top-notch. The little girl seemed to have known all along that her brother had been switched, but due to jealousy, or for some other reason, coupled with brainwashing, she completely fell under the control of the Wang family.

The Wang family looks down on anyone who is weak and worthless.

However, after hearing Huo Xiangu's words, Zhang Wuxun still had some doubts. Huo Xiaoyao's exposure was too abrupt, and her death was also sudden. She could endure the pain of having all her bones removed, so why would she suddenly commit suicide? It was as if she was in a hurry to complete some mission.

The mission, the death—if the person behind it really needed her to do something, they could have waited until they reached the core of the main building before taking covert action, instead of rushing out to her death like this. Yes, she's just throwing her life away.

This sudden performance made it seem as if someone had given her this task at the last minute, because in everyone's eyes, including Huo Xiangu herself, the only person in the team at this moment who was most worthy of suspicion was Huo Xiaoyao.

So, there's at least one member of the Wang family hidden in this group. Who could it be?
Zhang Wuxun turned his gaze to all the Huo family members, including Huo Chushi and Huo Xiuxiu. Everyone had an indifferent expression on their faces, and their eyes revealed no flaws.

Zhang Wuxun went to look at Huo Xiaoyao, who died with her eyes wide open, and found that when she died, her pupils were turned to the side, and the area that her peripheral vision might have reached was exactly where she was looking at him and Xiao Ge.

Besides him and the young man, there was another person over there.

Zhang Wuxun suddenly smiled. He understood what Huo Xiangu meant. Before entering the core of the Zhang Family Ancient Building, the old lady wanted to use him to conduct a final screening of the people in the group.

She had a clever plan, but Zhang Wuxun didn't expose her. He turned to Huo Chushi and the others and said, "There are too many monsters and demons in your team. For the sake of harmonious cooperation in the future, let's all do a self-examination."

Huo Chushi glanced at him, then at the corpse on the ground, and immediately realized what was happening. He grabbed his own face and tugged at it, rubbing his features vigorously to prove that his face was real.

Seeing this, others followed suit, proving that they were the real people, and asked each other questions. Those who couldn't answer were suspected.

After a chaotic dance of demons and various attempts to expose each other's shortcomings, the atmosphere in the group became much more relaxed.

Zhang Wuxun casually checked the faces of several people, and also touched behind Huo Xiaoli's ear, but found nothing unusual.

Was he just overthinking things? Zhang Wuxun was a little suspicious. He grabbed Huo Xiaoli's ear and tugged it, making Huo Xiaoli wince in pain. She felt wronged and frustrated, but she didn't dare to resist. After all, Huo Xiaoyao had the misfortune of looking at him the other way, so it was normal for her to be suspected.

"Mr. Yu, how about I just wash my face?" Huo Xiaoli inhaled, covered her ears, and suggested in a low voice.

Zhang Wuxun gave a fake smile. "No need. If it were really a human skin mask, it would have been torn to shreds long ago."

Turning around, he met Huo Xiangu's gaze. Huo Xiangu's eyes were solemn, and she shook her head slightly.

Zhang Wuxun understood. Even with such a thorough investigation, they hadn't been able to find it, which showed that the ghost was very well hidden. Huo Xiangu no longer even trusted her own confidants.

However, this also has its advantages. Once all doubts are dispelled and it is proven that there are no more traitors in the team, everyone's vigilance will decrease without them realizing it, and the same goes for the ghost.

He wanted to use Zhang Wuxun to hide himself even more deeply, and Zhang Wuxun did just that.

"Let's go in from the left first, then go to the right," Zhang Wuxun said.

No one said anything, so Zhang Wuxun assumed they all agreed. He and the young man stepped through the porch one after the other, and the others quickly followed.

The passageway wasn't long. As they approached the end, a clattering sound suddenly came from the tomb passage they had just passed. The sound sent chills down everyone's spines, and they immediately stopped and looked warily at the coffin placed in the grotto.

The clicking sound only lasted for a moment, then fell silent.

"Wh...what is that?" Huo Xiaoli asked tremulously, her teeth chattering uncontrollably, whether from the cold or something else.

Zhang Wuxun pinpointed the source of the sound and looked at Huo Xiaoli suspiciously, "Are you cold?"

"Huh?" Huo Xiaoli sniffed and touched the back of her head. "I don't know why, but ever since I came in, my back has been feeling cold, like something is blowing cold air on my back."

Zhang Wuxun noticed that his eyes were somewhat glazed over and his body was trembling slightly. He frowned and asked, "Do you have a fever?"

Huo Xiaoli checked her forehead temperature. "I don't have a fever. My forehead is ice cold."

Zhang Wuxun pulled him over, about to check the back of his neck, when he suddenly caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. He paused for a moment, then immediately looked at the dark figure that had appeared on the other side of the tomb passage. "Huo Xiaoyao?"

who?!!
The hairs on everyone's backs stood on end. Looking at the crooked, dark figure standing at the entrance of the passage, the beam of light in their hands shone on it, revealing the full shape of the figure. They were immediately shocked and retreated, raising their guns in alertness.

"Are you sure it's her? Isn't she dead?" the Huo family asked in horror.

Huo Chushi cursed under his breath, thinking, "This is ridiculous!" He picked up his gun and was about to go over to see what was going on.

Zhang Wuxun reached out to stop him and said in a deep voice, "Don't go over there, something's not right."

"Clack-clack-clack-"

Two more sounds followed, confirming that the sound was indeed coming from the dark shadow.

"Has she...has she turned into a rice dumpling?"

Huo Xiaoli's voice trembled slightly. After all, seeing someone who had been poisoned and died suddenly standing right in front of you would scare anyone half to death.

Huo Xiaoyao stood crookedly outside the gate, her body hunched over. Her dislocated joints looked as if they were pieced together from toys, strangely supporting her muscles. Like a puppet on strings, her head drooped, her mouth was crooked, and her pupils rolled back in front of their sockets like an animal's. Her whites were covered with blood vessels, staring straight at everyone.

Could it be that some senior in the coffin has been too lonely for so many years, and is so excited to finally see living people that he wants to use Huo Xiaoyao's body to talk to them?

"Clack-clack-clack-"

Two more sounds, which sounded a lot like the sound of teeth chewing on cartilage.

"What is it saying?" Huo Chushi asked Zhang Wuxun and the other person, puzzled.

“I don’t know.” Zhang Wuxun frowned as well. “What I’m more curious about is why she hasn’t come in after standing at the door for so long.”

Huo Chu Shi and the others were speechless. "There's no need to be so hospitable." "Perhaps they want to go to the right," Huo Xiao Li said cautiously.

As soon as she finished speaking, Huo Xiaoyao's upper body seemed to come alive, moving and twisting, bowing down towards the inside of the door in an unbelievable arc.

Only then did everyone realize that "Huo Xiaoyao's" body was facing away from them, meaning that this ghostly thing had twisted Huo Xiaoyao's neck 180 degrees.

Bang—someone's gun went off accidentally, and the bullet whistled through Huo Xiaoyao's skull, sending a spray of blood flying.

Huo Xiaoyao's body was flipped back by the force of the bullet, and after remaining in this strange posture for more than ten seconds, she slowly flipped back again.

The Huo family members who had just fired the shots stared wide-eyed in horror, their breathing becoming increasingly heavy.

Huo Chu Shi immediately ordered, "Fire! Shoot!"

A series of gunshots rang out, sparks flew, and Huo Xiaoyao, who was standing at the door, was blasted backward and fell to the ground, turning into a pile of minced meat.

All the fear stems from insufficient firepower.

The magazine of bullets was quickly used up. Huo Chushi raised his hand to signal a break, and then planned to go and see what kind of demons and monsters were causing trouble. Zhang Wuxun went over with him.

The body on the ground riddled with bullet holes was indeed Huo Xiaoyao's. Although her face was badly bruised, Huo Chushi could still recognize her.

Just as he was about to squat down to take a closer look, Zhang Wuxun suddenly grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him backward, throwing him directly into the tunnel.

Huo Chushi landed, dissipated the force, rolled over, and knelt up with one hand on the ground. He looked over with a mixture of anger and confusion, only to find that Zhang Wuxun's short knife was stuck vertically in the ground, and below the knife was a black hairy snake nailed there.

The black-haired snake was thin and long, as thick as a mineral water bottle cap. It crawled out from Huo Xiaoyao's neck on the ground, with the back half of its tail still embedded in the flesh.

"What happened?" Huo Chu Shi got up from the ground, still shaken. "How could a snake have crawled into her body?"

Zhang Wu looked up at the volcanic rock steps they had come down from, but found nothing unusual.

If it was someone with sloping shoulders who secretly followed them here, there's no reason why he and the young man wouldn't have discovered it.

“She brought this snake in herself,” Zhang Wuxun said. “This special kind of snake can control the corpse of a dead person, or it can quietly lurk inside a person’s body while they are still alive.”

Huo Chu Shi was a little skeptical. "Such a thick snake, burrowing into the body, even a person in a vegetative state would feel something was wrong."

"This type of snake is ovoviviparous. When it first hatches, it is almost transparent. As it gets nutrition, its color gradually darkens. Moreover, the young snakes secrete a substance that can numb nerve pain. If you are bitten by it, it's just like being kissed by a mosquito; you won't feel anything."

“You can cut open her joint tissue and see for yourself whether I’m lying or not; it will be clear at a glance,” Zhang Wuxun said.

Huo Chushi deftly sliced ​​open the skin and flesh of the kneecap, and sure enough, he found a small white snake, about the thickness of a finger, in the joint capsule under the patella of the kneecap.

The young snake, perched on the dagger, twisted and arched its body, trying to burrow into the fresh flesh. Huo Chu Shi threw it to the ground and cut it into several pieces with the knife.

He then wiped the dagger clean with a look of disgust and turned to report the situation to Huo Xiangu.

It turned out to be a false alarm, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief after realizing it was the snake that was behind it.

Fear stems from the unknown, and people are always more accepting of known creatures, even if those creatures are equally terrifying.

Given that there were still many small snakes that hadn't been killed inside the corpse, Huo Chushi had someone pour strong liquor on it and throw in a burning tinderbox.

The flames roared and spread instantly to the body, a pungent stench wafted out, and the faint sound of a baby crying seemed to come from within the flames. Huo Chushi and the others poured another bottle of wine on it until the corpse was burned into a charred, curled-up mass. They even smashed the brittle bones, put them into a small jar, sealed it, and placed it in the corner.

The key question now is whether the snake had been parasitizing Huo Xiaoyao before she entered the sealed stone, or whether it was deliberately released by the Wang family member who was hiding in the group after her death to cause trouble.

After pondering for a while, Zhang Wuxun still believed that the snake had been parasitizing Huo Xiaoyao from the beginning. Since this place was underground and the temperature was so low, the snake could not have hatched and grown to this extent if the parasitism period had not been long enough.

So the question is, how did this snake get parasitized on Huo Xiaoyao?

Was it the hand under the slumped shoulder? Or was it the Wang family? And what was their motive?
The Wang family's technique for cultivating black flies was already mature a long time ago. If it really was created by them, it certainly wouldn't be this bad; this is at most a half-finished product.

Previously, Zhang Wuxun discovered that the slumped-shoulder snakes were also raising snakes. Only one in ten thousand of these snakes stored memories, so the remaining snakes must have other uses.

Zhang Wuxun looked at Huo Chushi's arm, which was bandaged with gauze. Huo Xiaoyao had bitten it earlier. He asked, "Do you feel anything unusual in this arm?"

Huo Chushi frowned. "What do you mean? You mean, this kind of snake could potentially parasitize me through the wound?"

“That’s possible,” Zhang Wuxun said, shrugging. “Why don’t you get a serum injection or something as a precaution?”

Huo Chushi's expression resembled that of someone who had eaten a fly-shaped poop ice cream. The thought that such a disgusting snake might have already made its home inside his body made every pore on his body itch.

They hurriedly sought out Huo Xiuxiu to administer antivenom and an injection of antibiotics.

This was finally over. The procession continued forward, passing through an arched doorway at the end of the passageway, and arrived at a crossroads shaped like a walking stick.

Facing us were two enormous burial coffins placed on a stone platform. Upon closer inspection, the dark patterns on the coffins seemed strangely eerie, unlike the patterns on the coffins in the grotto in front of us.

The coffins in front were decorated with ordinary mountain, rock, bird, beast and auspicious patterns, while the two coffins were decorated with a red lacquer base and engraved with an extremely cold black, unrestrained and chaotic, as if the red was cut with a knife blade.

The patterns on the coffins are of a dragon and a phoenix, and the coffin lids are black with gold trim. Apart from the patterns and engravings, there are no last words or epitaphs of the deceased, so it is impossible to know who is buried inside.

But the young man's expression changed after he saw the two coffins.

When some members of the Huo family tried to get a closer look, the young man coldly warned them, "Stay away from it."

The Huo family was startled by him and looked at each other in bewilderment.

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(End of this chapter)